Did LOTR need more action?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Archaic Elf

I haven't seen the Lord of the Rings live action films yet, but we've all heard insults about the LOTR involving nothing but characters walking endlessly across Middle Earth. Obviously that's an exaggeration, but couldn't the story of the Lord of the Rings have been expanded to include more action to show just how destructive the entire ordeal was?

I think the 'destructive' nature of the War of the Ring was indicated well enough in the books. You have the Nazgûl's invasion of the Shire and their servants' break-in at the Prancing Pony as a precursor to the things to come in the first book.

All-out war begins in Two Towers and continues until the Ring is destroyed. Even then, the War comes to the Shire and more battle awaits the Hobbits even after Sauron's fall. I think overall the events you cite were left out of the main narrative because they contributed no more to that point.

Also, as LOTR was written, it concerns mainly the four Hobbits, and was 'archived' as a history of that time written from their point of view. The things they personally did not witness that are detailed were taken from the accounts of their friends, the others of the Fellowship.

Only the events at Pelargir were seen by the Hobbits' friends, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, and we do get an overall summary of what happened there.